(NNPA/GIN)—Top U.S. officials made an unannounced visit to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, a former military dictator, during their recent trip to the oil-producing African nation—a move that raised fears of U.S. support for a possible run by Babangida for the presidency in next year’s elections.

“At the very least, the parley suggests that Obama’s team regards the retired general as an instrument for solving Nigeria’s myriad and deep political crises,” wrote columnist Okey Ndibe on the anti-corruption website SaharaReporters.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (NNPA)—A traffic jam in the streets of Downtown Port-au-Prince makes it barely impossible to navigate the van from block to block. People walk along the edges of the streets, seemingly defying the moving vehicles only inches away.

Some sit on chairs or upside down buckets on the sidewalk, selling goods or cooking in large pots.

SYDNEY (AP)—An Australian government program imposing radical restrictions on Aborigines in a crackdown on child abuse is inherently racist, breaches international human rights obligations and must be changed immediately, a U.N. official said Feb 24. In a report to be released this week, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, James Anaya, expressed serious concerns over the controversial initiative known as “the intervention.”

by T. Mgudlwa

DRAKENSTEIN, South Africa (AP)—Standing at the gates of a prison, South Africans celebrated how far they have come since Nelson Mandela took his walk to freedom 20 years ago Feb. 11.

Now 91 and frail, Mandela is rarely seen in public. He celebrated quietly at his home last week by reminiscing with fellow veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle.

WATERSHED MOMENT—A man holds up his fist in front of the statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela during celebrations outside the Drakenstein prison near Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 11.

Thousands of admirers flocked to the former Victor Verster Prison in Drakenstein near Cape Town where Mandela was last held and where a 10-foot (3-meter) high bronze statue depicting Mandela’s first steps as a free man after 27 years behind bars now stands. On this day 20 years ago, Mandela walked out of Victor Verster hand-in-hand with his then-wife Winnie, fist raised, smiling but resolute.